September 26, 2019 • 43 mins
Amazon announces details on no less than a dozen Alexa enabled gadgets; Ring makes its cheapest security camera yet; Ways to make your web browsing more private; details on Rich's new book with iPhone tips for iOS 13; Google Play has a new games subscription for $5 a month. Listeners ask about switching from Pixel to Samsung, whether the app Mobilio is safe, ideas for lightweight iPhone battery cases and the best GPS watch for kids with autism.Rich:https://twitter.com/richdemuroProducer Meghan:https://twitter.com/producermeghanRich's New Book:https://amzn.to/2m2dznySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Amazon announces a bunch of new devices and they all
have that a ward built in Ring unveils its cheapest
camera yet. I've got details on my new book about
iOS thirteen and the iPhone. Ways to make your web
browsing more private. Plus your tech questions answered. What's going on?
I'm Rich Demiro. This is Rich on Tech. This is
(00:25):
the podcast where I talk about this stuff I think
you should know about happening in the tech world. Plus
I answer the questions that you send me, whether it's
through email, the website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or by messenger Pigeon.
Welcome as always to producer Megan. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hey, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Uh. I'm glad you're back up for it, because for
a while I thought you might not return.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
What why?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Just last week was a little little dicey, But I'm
glad to see you back. It's at dicey and we
are ready. We have a lot to talk about this
week because I just want to get this out there
because you don't see me angry very often or do you?
Probably every day? No, but I will say I am
very competitive, do you know that?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Oh yep, yeah. So we did not get invited to
this Amazon event.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
That happened this week coming out with it, and I.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Mean I didn't talk about this on Twitter, I didn't
make a big deal out of it on my Facebook,
and m'post about it on TV, none of those things.
But here on the podcast where I talk to you
and only you, I want you to know my true
feelings on this. And I feel like Amazon made a
big mistake in not inviting us to their event this
week where they unveiled a gazillion gadgets that, by the way,
(01:39):
are exactly what my audience is asking about. Yep, okay.
And here's the thing. This happened. So when Amazon had
their first event, they invited me. It was in somewhere
like Los Angeles. I was like, oh, that's cool, it's
in a life. This is many years ago, probably I
would say like eight years ago. Then they had another event,
like a smaller one. It was like we weren't invited.
It was like, eh, oh no, they had one New
(02:00):
York Sorry New York still invited, went to New York
for their event. Next one didn't get an invite. I'm like,
that's weird. So email the people at Amazon whatever and
you know whatever, This one hear about it. Everyone gets
their invites, and so I email someone remains to be unidentified,
(02:20):
and their response back to me was basically, invites are
really tight. I'm like, okay, so whatever, I just couldn't go.
And I look at everyone on Twitter and their mom
and they are all there. I mean, I'm talking for everyone. Yeah,
even if I did, I've broken iPhones and Apple still
(02:42):
invites me their events. And by the way, Apple is
the best tech company in the world right now.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And thought that is tight.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
That's called the tight list. Yeah, yeah, let's talk.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
About tight lists. Let's talk about let's talk about the
fire phone. How'd that do?
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah? Exactly. Maybe that's maybe that I'm actually going to
be totally honest. Maybe this is why I did not
get invited. I never I never returned the firephone. Well
oh no, let's let's.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Just get it out there.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
But I'll tell you why I didn't, because it was
such a colossal failure that I told Amazons are like,
you have to give this back to us now, and
I said, you know what, I just want to wait
for one more software update, which was true. I wanted
to see kind of like if they made any improvements
and after that software update, They're all right, you got
to give it back now, and I'm like, I'm not.
I really wanted to keep it because I felt.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Like probably, but also it's not it Okay, I mean
I don't know anyway. But also you're a Google person.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I'm not a Google person.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You are for your home, all your homestill okay, okay,
And so I will say so maybe they think he
doesn't even like Alexa, he doesn't like.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
That is wrong for him to think that way, or
they just they like, if you're a tech company and
you're thinking you're not going to invite someone because they
don't use your products, then half the tech reporters would
not be there because guess what, half the people at
Google in two weeks are going to be using iPhones
and Apple watches. Yeah, that's just the way it is
right now. When you go to Apple, everyone's using iPhone.
I'll be honest.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Oh yeah, I mean so.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I'm just saying that. I'm telling that to you because
I want you to take what I say about all
these new devices with a grain of salt, because I
may not be so kind to them. And also I
don't have the basis to tell you what you really
need to know about them, right, because I'm just reading
what they sent to me, because they did send me
a synopsis of the event so nicely. Oh cool. Yeah,
And so I told the person who sent me that.
(04:31):
I was like, next time, why don't we be there?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
You should read like the synopsis for one device and
then or just say what you think it is and
then read the synopsis, just so that people can get
an idea of what Amazon wants you to think.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
And here's the thing. So Alexa, I've said this before,
I don't think is as good as other assistants out there.
So they can build it into a million and one products,
and I still don't think it's as good as Google Assistant,
and even Siri for certain cases, like Siria is very
good at commanding your phone, not so good at commanding
all kinds of knowledge. Alexa, when I had it set
(05:08):
up in my house, I would ask it the simplest
things like to turn off lights, turn on lights, and
it would never get it right. And then with the skills,
it's it's kind of tricky. Anyway, They've done very well
with Alexa because the price points are good and they've
got them into a lot of hands and they've got
a lot of products with it, but I'm still not convinced.
So without further ado, let's get into some of these products.
Echo Dot with Clock. This is an Echo Dot that
(05:31):
has an LED display that shows you the time, the temperature, timers,
and alarms. That's sixty dollars. I think this is probably
going to be the most popular device they launched because
it's an Echo Dot for your bedside that has a
clock on It makes perfect sense. You could put this
thing anywhere you could put it. I mean think if
you run like an Airbnb, could put this on a
bedside table, you know whatever. You could put it in
(05:52):
the spare room, in the bathroom, whatever, and it still
kind of works. It's cute, and it's sixty dollars, which
really means an Amazon money that it's probably like forty
when it goes on sale because these Echo Events devices
always go on seal. Yeah. Echo Show eight is their
answer to the Google Home Hub. This is an Echo
Show that has an eight inch display and the main
(06:13):
thing here is that it has a built in camera
shutter because privacy is top of mind these days, and
so you can slide that closed and it's one hundred
and thirty dollars. Echo Studio is their best sounding echo.
This is kind of a giant echo and if you
really want to convert your whole house to Amazon Sound,
then you probably want to get this thing. And it's
one hundred and ninety nine dollars. That's expensive, but it's
(06:36):
not as expensive as if you compare it to something
like Sonos, and that's kind of what they're putting this
up against. Echo buds these are my head scratcher of
the day. These are wireless earbuds that have bows active
noise cancelation or noise reduction technology and hands free access
to you know who. One hundred and thirty dollars. But
here's the thing. These have micro USB, which has not
(06:58):
been used on a gadget like five years. Okay, most
of the gadgets these days, or ninety nine percent of them,
are USBC, which is reversible, it's faster, it's better, it's
the standard nowadays, and lightning obviously on Apple products, even
some Apple products. The new ones are USBC, and they're
still micro USB on these earbuds, so that's a big
(07:20):
like eh. And they're not in air buds replacement at
one hundred and thirty dollars. No way, air buds are
one sixty or AIRPODSDS get the AirPods?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Or are the Samsum buds the.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Galaxy buds those are like ninety nine on them.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Can you connect those buds to your phone?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, they're just Bluetooth so the work. Yeah. Echo Frames
these are two experimental products. Echo frames are glasses that
have hands free access to a and those are one
hundred and eighty dollars. They also have I mean you
basically can use them and hear Alexa. There's no camera inside,
there's no display. It's not like one of those like
futuristic glasses. They're just glasses that in the sides have
(07:59):
like microphone and speakers. You can talk to Alexa all day.
I don't know. Those are only compatible with Android phones,
which limits their you know, broad appeal. Echo Loop is
a smart ring that provides access to Alexa on the go.
This is one hundred and thirty dollars and it has
two microphones and the tiniest speaker ever on a Echo device,
(08:20):
plus a tiny haptic that vibrates. So if you now,
that's kind of cool. So if you get an incoming call,
your ring vibrates, which is kind of cool if you
don't want to watch right. It also can announce you know,
you can be Here's how they describe get this.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I feel like you're getting No.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
They can you can discreetly ask how much is the
right amount to tip at dinner. You can confirm you
lock the front door, or announce you're on the way home.
Or you can use it for short phone calls.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Or you could just google it like on your phone.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, or you can just use your phone. This the
echo loop smart ring. If it was a fitness ring,
I could see the benefit of it, and maybe there
are some fitness things, but no, Amazon is really stretching
with some of this stuff, like give me a break, right.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I wonder if Jeff Bezos is going to get engaged
to his girlfriend with the ring. That would be I hope,
so sorry. That's yeah, that's just funny.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
See the way you think Amazon's smart oven. This is
a convection oven, microwave, airfrer, and food warmer. You can
ask Alexa to preheat the oven starter, stop cooking, and
be notified when it's ready. I actually think that's really cool.
And there's also a barcode scanner, so you can scan
smart foods or special foods from Whole Foods and Marie
(09:32):
Calendars and Guarden and it will tell you like it'll
cook them properly. That's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
That is cool.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I actually like the idea of a smart oven because
I love the idea that when I'm on my way home,
I can preheat the oven.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
You know, when your dad you're like making nuggets for
the kids and stuff. So it's always like, I know
you're going to like Sweet Green for like a fifteen
dollars salad like with you know, protein.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
I literally never go to Sweet Green. I wish I
could afford that. That's so expensive.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
It is expensive, but it's all local and it's really good.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
It is.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Sweet Green is like my absolute favorite. Yeah, but I
feel like every time I go in there, it's just
more and more expensive. I'm like this, get like another
dollar more expensive.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
My favorite thing is to like look up a salad
from there and then find regrade it.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah. My new favorite thing has been going to salad bars.
Oh so it's like at Gelson's.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
You see that I'm not good at putting it together.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I need here's what you do? This guy, doctor Grieger.
He has the how not to die and he just
has his list of twelve things you should be eating
every day, which is like nuts, seeds, greens, cruciferous. Just
dump all that in the salad and it's great. So
just go for like anything that, like most people don't
want in their salad. That's what you put in there,
(10:43):
like the the atamamae beans, the sunflower seeds, the good
you know, kale, the you know, like anything that you
don't want, that's what you have to eat. Okay, that's it,
and you just dump it all in there. Put a
little dressing. Tastes good, It tastes great.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Little chicken obviously, chicken makes anything taste good. I think.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Finally, Echo Glow this looks really cool too, So I'm
not hating on, you know, on Amazon, I mean, but
Echo Glow is a multicolor smart lamp that pairs Alexa
and it's just thirty dollars and I love this.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
I think I would get this too.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Did you see it? Yeah? It looks really it looks
really cool.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
It reminds me of.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yes, the Hue the you go.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, yep, it's literally the same thing.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yeah, but for half the price.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
So that's why I love it.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
And so basically doesn't it increase in brightness as you're
waking up, so it helps you wake you up, helps
wake you up.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
You can put on your bedside to do that. They're
they're doing they're marketing it as a multicolor smart lamp
for kids, but it can you know, there's a lot
of things you can do. But I just love the
idea of the kids. You know, they love building forts
and to have this little glowing in fact, you know,
I'm just going to order this right now, pre order done.
I don't be released on November twentieth. I mean, why would
I not want this?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Now, can I control it with my phone? That's the
only thing.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
That's what I was about to say. I have a
Google Home Yeah I don't have.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
I want to make sure that I can get it
with Bluetooth, because that's the thing about the phone. Yeah,
because if I can't do it with Bluetooth, that's a problem.
Because I can't. I'll I have to look on into
this a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
You know. What I started using, yes literally yesterday, was
there's a sleep app that I used to use and
I haven't touched it in a year. And it basically it's.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Called a good story, Megan, what cool story?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Tell against sleep cycle? Okay, have you ever used it? No?
So basically what it does is it wakes you up
when you're in the lightest like frem or whatever. And
like I woke up at two thirty ish, like I
started to wake up, and it like turned on the
alarm then because it knew.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I was like, actually, have to put your phone on
your pillow, No, you.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Put it on your used to have to have it
on your bed, but now you can put it like
on your bedside table. And I don't know, but it's
like it knew that I was waking up like naturally,
which I don't ever do. I normally like can't wake up.
It's like hard for me to wake up like always,
I've always been this way.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
You're a dead sleeper.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, Like even if I have to wake up, even
after if I have to wake up at like ten
am on the weekend, it's hard for me. So it
literally is the safe funny.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I know, I'm a jump out of bed kind of person.
I wish I could. I wait to wait.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I will wait as long.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
As I'll look over at my little alarm clock and
see I like tap my watch and I'll be like,
is it time to wake up yet? And I'll just
like lay there and like wait, and I'll wake up
like a little bit earlier than my clock sometimes. All right,
let's get to the first question of the day.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
All right, So this first question comes from Janetta and
she wrote to you through Facebook, which is Facebook dot com,
slash rich stamiro Right rich on Tech, rich on Tech.
She asked, what do you think about mobilio app? Is
it safe to use? I've never heard of this.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
I have not heard of this either. But here's the thing.
I've noticed that a lot of people email me questions
about stuff they see advertised on TV. Because when I'm
at the gym, I see a whole bunch of stuff
and I'm just taking notes. I'm like, I need to
cover that. I need your story on that, and what's
that app? What's this? So I guarantee you this is
something that she either saw shared on Facebook, advertised on Instagram,
or on a TV somewhere. So I looked it up
(14:22):
and Mobilio is an app where you drive with this
app on your phone, and the better you drive, the
more they reward. You, but they don't reward you in cash.
They reward you with their own cryptocurrency called Mobilio. Now,
I don't think there's anything wrong with this app. I
(14:42):
think that it's an interesting idea. But what they're doing
is there, and they are paying you for your data.
Unlike Google Maps, which is doing the same thing. It's
collecting all kinds of data on you, it's not paying
you for that data. So I like the idea that
they are paying you for the data they're collecting. But
do I trust their weird crypt currency. No, And for
that reason I would not get this app. Now, with
(15:04):
that said, let me just see. I'm curious. I'm always curious.
You can't really trust Okay, yeah, it's only has Okay, interesting,
it's from uh, it's from Germany, so it's not necessarily
a bad app. But I just I don't. I don't know.
I just feel like I'm not really convinced that this
is the way to go to give up all your
(15:25):
data about driving. And I'd also be concerned if something
were to happen, if you got into an accident, if
someone could subpoena the data from this app. Yeah, So
I don't. I don't think you should go for that.
But good question.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
It's an interesting I've never heard of something like that.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Well, something that people don't realize is and I told
Uber this when I was in contact with them about
you know, long story short, a lot of these apps
like Uber and Lyft, they're actually looking at what the
drivers are doing on those apps while they're driving. So
there is monitoring software inside those apps that see if
a driver is handling their phone, if they're speeding, yeah,
(16:02):
if they're breaking too hard. And I don't know if
all the drivers know that. They probably do know that, yeah,
And I'm not sure that even Uber is using this
data to you know, score drivers or you know x
drivers from their system or their platform. But I'm just
saying in a lot of these apps that you download,
there are a lot of things that you may not
know are happening in the background. And I think we're
seeing this with iOS thirteen. Actually, have you updated your
(16:25):
phone yet? Okay, so if you've updated your phone, you
have definitely noticed that you're getting all these little alerts
that say this program has been using your location in
the background, this program has been using Bluetooth. And so
for me, I got one from Ralph's. You know, Ralph's
the grocery store. Why would Ralphs need access to my bluetooth?
And I got this message on iOS thirteen. Ralphs has
(16:47):
been using your bluetooth thirteen times in the past, you know,
in the background. And here's why, because a lot of
these companies will use bluetooth as a beacon to track
you and see where you are inside the store. They
can see what things you walk past. Serious, absolutely, and
so now iOS thirteen is cracking down because something you
wouldn't even have thought of.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Thanks Apple.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yeah, they're being very cool, and so is Androids doing
the same thing. They're both getting because we went through
this renaissance of apps and the beauty of all the
things our phone can do, right, and now we're getting
into like, okay, we let you have free rain for
a long time. Yeah, now we're gonna pull back a
little bit because hold on, what's going on here, and
that's kind of what we're seeing with these new operating systems.
(17:27):
So wow, if you see those messages, the maps one
looks a lot scarier than it really is, but you
have to it gives you pause. So for me, I've
an app called Citizen which alerts you when there's crime
in your area. We've talked about this before. Yes, for
that one, I do want my background location on at
all times because no matter where I am, I can
get an alert about crime happening near me to scare
(17:47):
the hell out of me. With the other one, with Ralphs,
when I saw the bluetooth thing, I don't need them
to have access to my bluetooth. I'm not using the
Ralphs Alexa microphone in my phone or whatever, so I
don't need that. So immediately I said, Nope, don't allow.
And in my book, by the way, we'll talk about
in a moment, but I do talk about how you
can turn off access because there's a lot of new
(18:07):
ways to turn off access to stuff on your phone
in iOS thirteen than you had before. So we talk
about that. I'll get to that after the next question.
But let's talk about Ring they have. This is related
to Amazon, but they also launched their most affordable security
camera to date. It's called the Ring Indoorcam. Everyone loves
indoor cameras now, there's so many of them, fifty nine
(18:29):
to ninety nine, which is considerably cheaper than what Nest offers.
But not as cheap as what Wise offers. Wise has
a camera for about twenty dollars. If you just need
a basic indoor security camera, Wise is the way to go.
Former Amazon folks did that. Amazon Cloudcam also not a
bad way to go. But the Ring Indoorcam can be
(18:50):
mounted anywhere in the house. It's got ten ADPHD video.
It also has a privacy feature that lets you disable
motion and audio recording from the app, not on a
physical key, which a lot of these things are doing.
And there's also an indicator light that lights up whenever
the camera is recording. Then they also announced their third
generation Ring stick up Cam, And I love the idea
of the stick up camp because it's really simple. A
(19:11):
lot of times you don't want to When they came
to my house to install the Nest Cam, it took forever.
They had to run wires and this and that. It
was a whole big nightmare. You need power and all
this stuff. The stick up Cam you can put anywhere
by yourself, and you can power it by pluggin if
you got a plug nearby. Great battery if you want
to recharge it, or solar which is kind of cool.
(19:31):
So if you want a camera in your backyard and
you don't have you know, a plug close to wherever
you plug. Put the camera in Solar Boom Ring stick
up cam and they call it stick up because you
just stick it up anywhere. Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
And both new cameras of course work with you know
who Alexa. Yes, so you can say Alexa, show the
backyard or show the living room or answer the living room.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So anyway, sorry, yeah, sorry but yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Oh and the Ring Indoor Ham is available today sixty
bucks Ring dot com, Amazon dot com, Best Buy dot com,
Target dot com, Home Depot dot com.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
You sound like one of those.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Marcials late at night.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
No, no, no, like the people that sell our.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Our oh our auction. All right, let's hear it.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
The next question comes from Galen and she's looking for
a charger phone case for her iPhone. I'm looking for
a lightweight, slim phone case that will charge my phone.
Getting ready to go to Australia. She wants to be
efficient and prepared. If you have a suggestion for a
portable charger, I'm happy to learn this as well.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Oh, she wants a portable charger or a or a phone.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Case that charges her phone. So one or the other.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
All right, well the phone. There's two phone cases that
are and she has iPhone, okay, so the two phone
cases are kind of the gold standard. Number one is
even before Apple did it, a company called Mophi did it.
Oh yeah, and everyone's heard of the Mofi case. So
Mophi has a juice pack and that's what I'd recommend.
So it depends if you want. They have different levels
(21:10):
of them, but your phone basically slides into this case.
Nowadays a lot of them are wireless, so you still
get the use of the lightning port on the bottom.
It used to be your phone would snap into the
case like this and it would take over the lightning
port because the charger the case would charge the lightning port.
Now it just sits on your phone on the back
(21:31):
and it wirelessly charges because all the new phones have
wireless charging, so you still get access to your charging
port if you need to plug in anything, headphones, whatever.
So that's the main thing. Those are about one hundred dollars.
I would recommend the Mofi one. Just go for that.
If you want to stick with Apple and stay in
the Apple family, then I would go with the Apple
iPhone Smart Battery case and did she say which model
(21:53):
of phone she had? No, No, okay, so they should
have it for most phone models. So it just depends.
But you know, that's the phone. Now. The one from
Apple is a little bit more expensive because that's Apple.
You're paying that little premium that's one hundred and thirty dollars.
And the only reason I like the Apple one a
little bit more is because it's grippy. It has that
(22:13):
silicone case, which is grippy, and I find that that's
really cool.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
The only way does it have two stars?
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Oh that's just on the Apple website. Who knows. Okay,
they probably don't like that as grippy. But the main
problem with the grippiness for a guy is that getting
it in and out of your jeans pocket not so easy.
Oh yeah, so I've had.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
The grippy girls put their phones in their genes part
in the back too.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
But it's but it's a little bit easier because you're
sliding it in, like screen first. I feel like, how
do you put your phone in your back pocket? Screen first?
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Or screen first?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, that's what I feel like, Yeah, do you do that.
I've started to do that because I really am concerned
about having my phone in the area that it's in
when it's in your pocket, you know what I mean, right,
Like that area is a little sensitive, you know, right,
So I feel like that I've been carrying a phone
there for like twenty years now I'm done having kids.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Radiation, Yeah, I never thought.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Yeah, oh, you've never thought about that. I also think
about it with my wrist with the Apple Watch, because
this has cellular and I feel like cellular is just
you know, pouring down on my wrist all day.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
That's really crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
So I've actually started and I think, so one should
do this putting my phone in my sock.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
But then if your foot gets cancer.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Well that's fine. They can just chop it off, right,
I mean, if it comes down to that, that's much.
It's a much better place if I had to pick.
I mean, let's hope we don't get to that. And
I'm not saying that phones do that, but you just
it's been a long time, and yeah, you know, like.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Sometimes when I watch TV on my laptop and it's
on my stomach, I'm like, this might not be good.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Depends how much you're binging. If you're binging a lot,
yeah might ours Yeah, cash out for that I'm not
a doctor, so don't take it. Don't take any medical
I and I love. I love having two kids because
they play together so much. It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
I think that's the perfect America.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
It really is. Oh that's mean you have three in
your family. So mean.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
When I have kids, I've thought about, well, I used
to want four if this is when I was like twelve,
and now I'm like, I think two. I don't know.
Everything's so expensive these days. I'll probably just stick to cats.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
I don't have cats. I have a dog. That's my
child for now. My mom's one of eleven, though, so
that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah, that's a lot of kids. I was one of five.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Oh yeah, and luck how you turned out.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
I'm yeah the thing. I was early in the bunch.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah you're the first.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Oh my, I'm the second. But all my siblings are great,
and it's I actually loved having five because it was
a party. Yeah, and I'm sure you know, I love
you know.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I loved having like I thought it was so normal
to have such a big family. And I love all
the cousins.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
So and solo kids. What do you call it? A
single thing?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
And my dad's an only child.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Only child. Only child's probably great too. You kids probably
love that because.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
They get all that at all the attention.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yeah, but I love my kids. I love I call
it like autopilot when they're just playing with each other
and I'm like.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Oh my gosh, this is That's like when my dogs
play with each other.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
It's the same thing, very similar. And you're like, come on,
come and get it, come and get the food. Let
me tell you about my new book, because I am
very proud of this, Megan. We've talked about this on
the show before, but now it is actually available so exciting.
It is called one and one iPhone Tips and Tricks,
and I say it is the key that's going to
help you unlock the most useful features on your phone.
(25:32):
Now you might be remembering that I wrote a book
last year, and you might be like, Rich, I already
got your last book. I don't need a new book.
Stop trying to get me to get this new book.
This new book is completely up, updated for iOS thirteen.
So while everyone else was out this summer vacationing sunbathing,
you were in Hawaii. Guess what I was doing.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
You were in New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
I was writing my book no matter where I was,
and so I've been pouring over iOS thirteen finding all
the little nuggets new things that you can do in
this operating system, and I wrote the book all about it.
So I tell you about the new way you can update, delete,
and rearrange apps, because that will throw you for a
loop when you try it. There's a new photo editor
and video editor. How to set time limits for apps,
(26:12):
and I can set time limits for websites too. Oh
wow cool. Okay, you can set your phone up to
help out in the emergency situation, block robo calls, activate
the dark mode, swipe to type, create an eye message profile,
which I'm surprised you have an update because that's like
one of the best features. When you text someone now
it shows their stuff, which is really cool.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Is there a reason why I don't see your profile?
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, because you're not on iOS thirteen yet.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
You can ask Siri to play any radio station, all
kinds of stuff. And if you're wondering how much of
this book is different from the first, I was very
cognizant of writing it for someone that purchased the previous book,
So yes, there is some stuff that repeats, but even
if it repeats, I do put a new twist on it,
but a majority of it is new now. Right now,
it's available as an ebook on the Kindle on Amazon.
(26:58):
The paperback is coming soon. We're just literally finalizing the
cover like this weekend, like it should be any day now.
Once that's done, you'll be able to get a paperback.
But the ebook is available. And some people have been
emailing me because they can't seem to figure out if
they don't have a Kindle how do they get the
Kindle version. Well, you don't necessarily have to have a
Kindle device. You can download the Amazon app, it's the
(27:20):
Amazon Kindle App to your iPhone or your iPad or
any tablet and read the book on there. But here's
a little trick of this whole thing. If you're trying
to buy the book from an iPhone, it will say
this item is not available for purchase on this device.
It's because Apple and Amazon are at war over a
commission on books sold. So you have to go to
(27:41):
a desktop computer buy the book that way, and then
you can just download it's your Kindle app anywhere you want.
That's a little trick to know. Or if you're really slick,
you can do what I can. What I would do
is I would just request the desktop version of the
website on Safari on Amazon and just buy it through
the website because you can buy it. Of course, you
can buy something on a website. So the problem is
(28:04):
if you go to Amazon on your phone and type
in you know, one D and one, Well, now I
have it on the desktop. So anyway, that's it one
and one iPhone tips.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Can you read us something from your book?
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Like not?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
You know, you don't want to give a lot of
it away. No.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
If you go on Amazon, you get literally the first
eleven chapters for free as a sample. So if you
want to get an idea of this book, just go
ahead and download the sample.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
And I'm doing it now.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
You get like the first ten chapters. I mean, it's
pretty amazing. But I I talk about all kinds of
fun stuff. So I mean, let's see, like privacy, every
app wants access to your location at all times. The
reason they can use this information to build a more
precise profile of you and have better luck as selling
you stuff. Of course, there are many benefits to sharing
(28:51):
your location with an app. It's how car sharing service
finds your house or weather app shows your local forecast.
Apple understands that location access can be a double edged sword,
which is why they're giving users more precise sharing options
in iOS thirteen. There you go.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Anyway, And I keep telling Rachi Sha do an audiobook.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Oh see, that's what it would sound like. You're just
gonna get me to read a little chapter every time
and post it all together.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
It's because I love listening to audiobooks when I go
on walks.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
So you want to take me everywhere? I get it?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah? No, okay, moving on. Next question comes from Rich's
Instagram account, which is rich on tech. Blue Moon asks
what is the best GPS watch for a person with
autism that does not have a phone.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Ooh, there, this is a market. If you're listening and
you are handy in any way, shape or form, come
up with a smart watch for kids because all the
options out there are terrible. And Apple should make the
Apple Watch for kids, but they don't. Oh yeah, but
the one that I've been testing with my kid is
the cool Pad Dino. I think we did a story
(29:57):
on this. It's a smart watch kind of a random
company that you probably haven't heard of, but it's a
great little watch. It does what it needs to do.
You can track your kid, it's GPS, it's got built
in cellular. You can buy this thing by itself. I
think the watch is like one hundred and fifty bucks.
Then you have to buy the cellular plan. Yeah, the plan,
which you know, they have various plans, but it's great.
(30:19):
It works with iOS and Android. You can send text,
you can call your kid. We've done calls like where
they are at, like knots Berry Farm or something, and
you call them on It sounds great, and you really
do when your kid has this thing on the wrist,
which she doesn't all the time, but you really do
feel peace of mind that your kid can have a
longer lease. They can kind of go because you know
you can get in touch with them, so I kind
of I mean, that's what I'd recommend Dino kids dot com. Okay,
(30:43):
the website to go to. All right, Oh my gosh,
we're almost out of time on the show. I can't
believe it. What did I promise here? I should? Oh
my gosh, Okay, let me get to a couple of things.
We talked about ways to make web browsing more private
on KTLA, and so I just want to go through
some of the tools that we talked about because I
thought that this story did fantastic.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
I love this story.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
First thing we talked about startpage dot com. You probably
haven't heard of it, but it builds itself as the
world's most private search engine. And the cool thing about
this search engine is twofold number one. The results are
from Google, so you can actually use it and get
good results and still protect your privacy. The second thing
is that you can visit any search result anonymously. So
next to each search result says something like anonymous visit,
(31:25):
You click it, and it sets up a temporary proxy
between you and the site you're visiting. So I always
give the example of you know, you think you got
something wrong with you you want to look it up,
but you don't really want that on your permanent Google record,
That's what I call it. And so you look up
this weird you know thing that you think you have, which,
of course is going to lead to you thinking you're dying.
Have you ever done this, Megan? Okay, of course everyone has. Yeah,
(31:47):
So again you don't want reminders of it, you.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Know, beam a headache and Google like headache in the
back of your brain. It's like taniarism, and then you're like,
how many minutes do I have?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
So true exactly, you've done this lately. The next thing
is the Brave web Browser. Brave web Browser is entire
web browser dedicated to privacy, so by default, it blocks trackers,
it blocks ads, it forces secure encrypted connections on any
website that supports it. They say that webpages load faster
because of all this, and you can also see how
(32:18):
Brave is working because they give you a little report
card for each site, but that's kind of like a
heavy handed approach because you're switching your entire web browser. Now,
speaking of switching your entire web browser, there's one called
Firefox Focus, and this is a mobile web browser, but
this is for a super private web browser on your phone.
And the thing about this web browser you probably wouldn't
replace your web browser with it, but it's kind of
(32:38):
fun to have for those searches. Like you said, if
you're looking up some sort of weird, you know, medical
condition you think you have and you don't really want
this on your phone. Every time you type into series
something and it's like you start with S and it's
like you know or are, and it's like weird rash
on side of leg you know what I mean, Like,
maybe you just don't want that, So Firefox Focus blocks
all the stuff you don't need. It's highly secure, and
(32:59):
at the end of your search session you press a
trash can and boom, everything is gone, so there's no
record of it. That's cool. Duck Duck Go Privacy Essentials
This is good if you're hesitant to switch browsers. This
is an extension for Chrome and other browsers that will
put a shield between you and spying trackers. So it
does all kinds of stuff. The only downside is it
(33:22):
changes your search engine to Duck Duck Go, which is
not very good. Yeah. I hate to say. They say
that they source results from four hundred different things, but
Google is not one of them, clearly because it's You'll
be fine, but it's just not Google like Google, let's
be honest, as the gold standard for search engine. And
(33:42):
then a lot of people were asking me what the
difference is between just all these things and using incognito
or private browsing mode. The difference is that incognito and
private browsing won't remember your search history, but it doesn't
necessarily block what you're doing from your ISP whoever's giving
you that Internet connection, which by the way, could be
your employer. So if you're searching for this stuff on
Wi Fi at work, your employer could see everything that
(34:03):
you're searching. So that's the main difference. Okay, you got
a quick question, Megan.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Um, Yeah, this question comes from Alex, she asks, and
she says, quick question. Oh perfect, I have Pixel three.
Thinking of changing thoughts on S ten versus Note versus
Pixel four.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
S ten versus Note versus Pixel four. So S ten
and the Note are pretty much the same. They're both Samsung. Yeah,
she has a Pixel three or he I would be
partial to seeing what the Pixel four is gonna be
all about. I mean, if you're used to that Pixel
three camera, it's gonna be really tough to go to
a Samsung camera. Not that the Samsung camera is bad,
but it's just not as fast and like spot On
(34:50):
the first time Pixel camera, no matter what you tap
it and it's gonna be a perfect picture every single time.
There's literally just no there's no fu whatsoever with Samsung.
It takes great pictures, but sometimes it could be hit
or miss in the low light situations, the selfie situations,
whatever it is. Sometimes it can be good. Sometimes they're
not so good. But with that said, I will say
(35:12):
that Samsung makes some of the most fun cameras I've
ever seen on a smartphone. When I have a Samsung
device in my hand, I just feel like I want
to take pictures in various ways, like I want to
take portrait mode, I want to take live video, I
want to just do all kinds of cool pictures with
that camera. Pixel is great, but it's kind of a
I always say this, it's a one trick pony. It
takes a picture, it's great, it looks cool, but that's it.
(35:33):
There's no wide angle, there's no you know, there's no telephoto.
You know, there's nothing. It's just boom, you take a picture.
So with that said, Pixel four is going to add
that wide angle lens, So that'll give you a lot
more in terms of creativity. So I'd wait for that
and i'd probably see what they offer and then make
your decision. But when it comes to S ten versus note,
I would go S ten plus because it's a smaller
(35:55):
form factor. Unless you need that stylus, it's a much
easier to handle phone. It just is cool, all right?
What else? What else? What else? Oh my gosh, I
feel like we have so many things to talk about.
Let's talk about Google play Pass. So both Google and
Apple have introduced a new way to purchase games, and
(36:16):
these are the Netflix subscription model, and that means you
pay one price a month, which is five dollars a month,
and you get unlimited access to games. You talked about
Apple Arcade last week. Google play Pass is what they
call it. The best part about these games there are
no ads or in app purchases, and we have been
so trained over the years to buy these games or
download them for free. Next thing you know, you're hit
(36:37):
up for fifty bucks for gold coins, two dollars for this,
three dollars for that. These games don't have that. So
I love that. I'm trying to get my kids to
play these games on the iPad. My kids says are
not as good because the main thing is he wants
these tycoon games, which are just sort of addictive games
that are terrible. But he wants those, and of course
(36:58):
those aren't offered in this model because guess but the
whole point of a tycoon game is to sell you
ondoing things faster, which means you need to buy gold
coins to do it faster. So it doesn't even work
with this model of no in app purchases. There is
no game. The game is psychological warfare on your brain
to get you to want to buy stuff, and if
you're taking that out of the equation, there's no reason
(37:18):
for those games.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
So it's a world that I don't Yeah, I don't
know much about.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
So I will tell you that the play pass and
has Tokoboca games built in, which is really cool if
you have kids, which I know you don't, but Tokboca
games are fantastic for kids. And for five bucks a
month to get unlimited Tokoboca games, that's really cool. I
don't know if it's all of them, says Tokoboca Classics
to the Mytown series. That's really cool. That's worth That
(37:42):
is worth the price of admission right there. And by
the way, Playpass is only a dollar ninety nine for
your first twelve months for a limited time, So if
you're on an Android device, I would jump on this
even if you don't necessarily care today. Locking that price
for twelve months, you get twelve months of gaming for
twenty four dollars. That's awesome them. Then it jumps up
to four ninety nine a month and they can do
that at any time. And if you don't get in
(38:04):
that one nine nine a month, you're gonna be kind
of sad. I'm gonna subscribe to it just because.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
I was looking through the games so a lot of
stuff on there.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Do you play a lot of games?
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I don't at all? Zero for your kids, Yeah, so
I'm but they're always playing games, so I'm I actually
I shouldn't say zero. I've I've probably played an hour
total last year of games. Oh okay, and I do
play a little like just to test amount sometimes. Yeah,
all right, uh wow, end of the show. Yeah, let's
do best of the week. I found a quote last
(38:34):
night in a book I'm reading that I really liked. Okay,
and do you want to go first or you want me.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
To go first? You go first? This is like legit.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Okay, So this was a great quote that I just
thought was really good. I posted this by my desk
at work. So and this was the quote. What do
we mean by talent? In the most general sense, talent
is a sum of a person's abilities, his or her
intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence, judgment, at itude, character,
(39:00):
and drive. This is the most important part. It also
includes his or her ability to learn and grow. I
just thought I could read this over and over. It's
just so interesting. When you think of someone being talented,
you think, oh, they're really good at something, But if
you think about it, talent is really a sum of
all these different little things about a person, and it
(39:21):
does include intelligence, judgment, attitude, character, drive. Someone could be
really talented and be really annoying to work with, right,
probably that's probably me. No, then I have to be talented,
I guess to fit in that.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Wait.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
This is from the book named Grit, which I'm reading
right now. Oh yeah, And the whole thesis of the book,
as far as I can discern from the first like
two chapters, is that being you know, people described as
a hard worker, but having that drive and that kind
of like just doing doing doing is sometimes more valuable
than just intrinsic talent. So that's why they're defining what
(39:53):
is talent. So I thought that was a great quote.
I love it and it reminds me actually of you, Megan,
because you shot something yesterday at an event we went to,
and it was kind of like a no brainer that
you did a really good job on this thing that
you shot, and I thought that was really cool. Sometimes
we shoot things for social media on an iPhone and
it's a talent to be able to actually just do that.
(40:16):
I mean, obviously we have skilled camera people that do.
Luis our camera guy we love, and he is a
fantastic camera person, but sometimes you don't burden him with
these little social media things we do, so they could
not look as good as our typical, like professional stuff.
But anyway, he did a really nice job, and it
just makes me realize that talent is. It's tough to
like just say one thing when it comes to talent.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, so I agree. I agree.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
So that's mine. What's your best of the week?
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Oh my gosh, mine is not as meaningful.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
That's okay, it doesn't have to be.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
So my brother has a YouTube page and it's called
magic Mikey, and he basically does like reviews and stuff
on like restaurants, and so he yesterday went to some
bakery and brought home a ton of donuts and like
horrible things I shouldn't be eating, but it was really
(41:07):
nice and like I like had a donut and it
was just like prop so far the best.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
That was the best part of your week. I love that.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
That's sad. I just I don't know, it was nice.
My mom and I.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Like like chowed down. Yeah, do you have more than
one or no?
Speaker 2 (41:21):
I had like half of an apple fritter, but those
are huge.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Those are good though. After fritters. Yeah, your brother he's
doing a good job. Yes, I see his videos pop
up on my feed because I'm a subscriber.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Are you a subscriber to him on YouTube?
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Yeah? Of course cool. Yeah, so his little videos and
on my YouTube like auto plays a little bit, so
I can see like a little preview sometimes and I'll
sit and watch some of them. Yeah, it's it's you know,
it's one of these things that he's eating like ten
thousand calories, twenty thousand calories, like in a sitting. He's
trying he.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Yeah, so he's trying to do less of that and
more of just like.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Like features and yea yeah, features of food.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
But that was what, like, you know, got him a
lot of followers in the beginning, was the whole cheat
day stuff.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Well, I love donuts, as well. I would if I could,
I would eat no joke. I could eat a dozen donuts,
no problem, like the glaze ones, not like a full
fritter kind of thing. But I could just sit there
and eat that like that is. I can't because it's
not good.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
For you to be here.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
I would. I would be dead, Yeah, I would.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Donuts and bagels are pretty pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Bagels have a good place in my heart. Yeah all right, Well,
thanks so much for listening to the show. We do
appreciate it. If you want to get in touch and
submit a question, you just go to my website. It's
rich on tech dot tv. Just hit that contact form.
I also have a newsletter that I send out usually weekly.
Just go to rich on tech dot tv. Hit newsletter,
put your email address in. It's totally free. Subscribe to that.
(42:46):
You'll get that every week or whenever I decide to
do it. Most of the time it's weekly, but it
gives you kind of a rundown of all the stuff
I mentioned. Producer Megan, how can people find you online?
Speaker 2 (42:55):
I'm on Twitter at producer Megan, and I'm on Instagram too,
Megan mcmonagall.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
We don't mention that one because you change it to
producer Megan. Yeah, I am rich on tech on all
platforms for the most part that I care about. Thanks
so much for listening. The book again is one hundred
and one iPhone Tips and Tricks, available as an ebook
on Amazon. Look for the new cover in what.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
Color it's in blue? Well, it's black and blue.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Look for the new black and blue cover. That is
the cover you want to look for. Don't get the
old one. Make sure it says iOS thirteen. Thanks so
much for listening. You have a fantastic day. We will
talk to you real soon.
Amazon announces a bunch of new devices and they all
have that a ward built in Ring unveils its cheapest
camera yet. I've got details on my new book about
iOS thirteen and the iPhone. Ways to make your web
browsing more private. Plus your tech questions answered. What's going on?
I'm Rich Demiro. This is Rich on Tech. This is
(00:25):
the podcast where I talk about this stuff I think
you should know about happening in the tech world. Plus
I answer the questions that you send me, whether it's
through email, the website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or by messenger Pigeon.
Welcome as always to producer Megan. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Hey, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Uh. I'm glad you're back up for it, because for
a while I thought you might not return.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
What why?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Just last week was a little little dicey, But I'm
glad to see you back. It's at dicey and we
are ready. We have a lot to talk about this
week because I just want to get this out there
because you don't see me angry very often or do you?
Probably every day? No, but I will say I am
very competitive, do you know that?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Oh yep, yeah. So we did not get invited to
this Amazon event.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
That happened this week coming out with it, and I.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Mean I didn't talk about this on Twitter, I didn't
make a big deal out of it on my Facebook,
and m'post about it on TV, none of those things.
But here on the podcast where I talk to you
and only you, I want you to know my true
feelings on this. And I feel like Amazon made a
big mistake in not inviting us to their event this
week where they unveiled a gazillion gadgets that, by the way,
(01:39):
are exactly what my audience is asking about. Yep, okay.
And here's the thing. This happened. So when Amazon had
their first event, they invited me. It was in somewhere
like Los Angeles. I was like, oh, that's cool, it's
in a life. This is many years ago, probably I
would say like eight years ago. Then they had another event,
like a smaller one. It was like we weren't invited.
It was like, eh, oh no, they had one New
(02:00):
York Sorry New York still invited, went to New York
for their event. Next one didn't get an invite. I'm like,
that's weird. So email the people at Amazon whatever and
you know whatever, This one hear about it. Everyone gets
their invites, and so I email someone remains to be unidentified,
(02:20):
and their response back to me was basically, invites are
really tight. I'm like, okay, so whatever, I just couldn't go.
And I look at everyone on Twitter and their mom
and they are all there. I mean, I'm talking for everyone. Yeah,
even if I did, I've broken iPhones and Apple still
(02:42):
invites me their events. And by the way, Apple is
the best tech company in the world right now.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And thought that is tight.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
That's called the tight list. Yeah, yeah, let's talk.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
About tight lists. Let's talk about let's talk about the
fire phone. How'd that do?
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Yeah? Exactly. Maybe that's maybe that I'm actually going to
be totally honest. Maybe this is why I did not
get invited. I never I never returned the firephone. Well
oh no, let's let's.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Just get it out there.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
But I'll tell you why I didn't, because it was
such a colossal failure that I told Amazons are like,
you have to give this back to us now, and
I said, you know what, I just want to wait
for one more software update, which was true. I wanted
to see kind of like if they made any improvements
and after that software update, They're all right, you got
to give it back now, and I'm like, I'm not.
I really wanted to keep it because I felt.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Like probably, but also it's not it Okay, I mean
I don't know anyway. But also you're a Google person.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I'm not a Google person.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You are for your home, all your homestill okay, okay,
And so I will say so maybe they think he
doesn't even like Alexa, he doesn't like.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
That is wrong for him to think that way, or
they just they like, if you're a tech company and
you're thinking you're not going to invite someone because they
don't use your products, then half the tech reporters would
not be there because guess what, half the people at
Google in two weeks are going to be using iPhones
and Apple watches. Yeah, that's just the way it is
right now. When you go to Apple, everyone's using iPhone.
I'll be honest.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Oh yeah, I mean so.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
I'm just saying that. I'm telling that to you because
I want you to take what I say about all
these new devices with a grain of salt, because I
may not be so kind to them. And also I
don't have the basis to tell you what you really
need to know about them, right, because I'm just reading
what they sent to me, because they did send me
a synopsis of the event so nicely. Oh cool. Yeah,
And so I told the person who sent me that.
(04:31):
I was like, next time, why don't we be there?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
You should read like the synopsis for one device and
then or just say what you think it is and
then read the synopsis, just so that people can get
an idea of what Amazon wants you to think.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
And here's the thing. So Alexa, I've said this before,
I don't think is as good as other assistants out there.
So they can build it into a million and one products,
and I still don't think it's as good as Google Assistant,
and even Siri for certain cases, like Siria is very
good at commanding your phone, not so good at commanding
all kinds of knowledge. Alexa, when I had it set
(05:08):
up in my house, I would ask it the simplest
things like to turn off lights, turn on lights, and
it would never get it right. And then with the skills,
it's it's kind of tricky. Anyway, They've done very well
with Alexa because the price points are good and they've
got them into a lot of hands and they've got
a lot of products with it, but I'm still not convinced.
So without further ado, let's get into some of these products.
Echo Dot with Clock. This is an Echo Dot that
(05:31):
has an LED display that shows you the time, the temperature, timers,
and alarms. That's sixty dollars. I think this is probably
going to be the most popular device they launched because
it's an Echo Dot for your bedside that has a
clock on It makes perfect sense. You could put this
thing anywhere you could put it. I mean think if
you run like an Airbnb, could put this on a
bedside table, you know whatever. You could put it in
(05:52):
the spare room, in the bathroom, whatever, and it still
kind of works. It's cute, and it's sixty dollars, which
really means an Amazon money that it's probably like forty
when it goes on sale because these Echo Events devices
always go on seal. Yeah. Echo Show eight is their
answer to the Google Home Hub. This is an Echo
Show that has an eight inch display and the main
(06:13):
thing here is that it has a built in camera
shutter because privacy is top of mind these days, and
so you can slide that closed and it's one hundred
and thirty dollars. Echo Studio is their best sounding echo.
This is kind of a giant echo and if you
really want to convert your whole house to Amazon Sound,
then you probably want to get this thing. And it's
one hundred and ninety nine dollars. That's expensive, but it's
(06:36):
not as expensive as if you compare it to something
like Sonos, and that's kind of what they're putting this
up against. Echo buds these are my head scratcher of
the day. These are wireless earbuds that have bows active
noise cancelation or noise reduction technology and hands free access
to you know who. One hundred and thirty dollars. But
here's the thing. These have micro USB, which has not
(06:58):
been used on a gadget like five years. Okay, most
of the gadgets these days, or ninety nine percent of them,
are USBC, which is reversible, it's faster, it's better, it's
the standard nowadays, and lightning obviously on Apple products, even
some Apple products. The new ones are USBC, and they're
still micro USB on these earbuds, so that's a big
(07:20):
like eh. And they're not in air buds replacement at
one hundred and thirty dollars. No way, air buds are
one sixty or AIRPODSDS get the AirPods?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Or are the Samsum buds the.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Galaxy buds those are like ninety nine on them.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Can you connect those buds to your phone?
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, they're just Bluetooth so the work. Yeah. Echo Frames
these are two experimental products. Echo frames are glasses that
have hands free access to a and those are one
hundred and eighty dollars. They also have I mean you
basically can use them and hear Alexa. There's no camera inside,
there's no display. It's not like one of those like
futuristic glasses. They're just glasses that in the sides have
(07:59):
like microphone and speakers. You can talk to Alexa all day.
I don't know. Those are only compatible with Android phones,
which limits their you know, broad appeal. Echo Loop is
a smart ring that provides access to Alexa on the go.
This is one hundred and thirty dollars and it has
two microphones and the tiniest speaker ever on a Echo device,
(08:20):
plus a tiny haptic that vibrates. So if you now,
that's kind of cool. So if you get an incoming call,
your ring vibrates, which is kind of cool if you
don't want to watch right. It also can announce you know,
you can be Here's how they describe get this.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I feel like you're getting No.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
They can you can discreetly ask how much is the
right amount to tip at dinner. You can confirm you
lock the front door, or announce you're on the way home.
Or you can use it for short phone calls.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Or you could just google it like on your phone.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, or you can just use your phone. This the
echo loop smart ring. If it was a fitness ring,
I could see the benefit of it, and maybe there
are some fitness things, but no, Amazon is really stretching
with some of this stuff, like give me a break, right.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
I wonder if Jeff Bezos is going to get engaged
to his girlfriend with the ring. That would be I hope,
so sorry. That's yeah, that's just funny.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
See the way you think Amazon's smart oven. This is
a convection oven, microwave, airfrer, and food warmer. You can
ask Alexa to preheat the oven starter, stop cooking, and
be notified when it's ready. I actually think that's really cool.
And there's also a barcode scanner, so you can scan
smart foods or special foods from Whole Foods and Marie
(09:32):
Calendars and Guarden and it will tell you like it'll
cook them properly. That's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
That is cool.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
I actually like the idea of a smart oven because
I love the idea that when I'm on my way home,
I can preheat the oven.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
You know, when your dad you're like making nuggets for
the kids and stuff. So it's always like, I know
you're going to like Sweet Green for like a fifteen
dollars salad like with you know, protein.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
I literally never go to Sweet Green. I wish I
could afford that. That's so expensive.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
It is expensive, but it's all local and it's really good.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
It is.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Sweet Green is like my absolute favorite. Yeah, but I
feel like every time I go in there, it's just
more and more expensive. I'm like this, get like another
dollar more expensive.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
My favorite thing is to like look up a salad
from there and then find regrade it.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah. My new favorite thing has been going to salad bars.
Oh so it's like at Gelson's.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
You see that I'm not good at putting it together.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I need here's what you do? This guy, doctor Grieger.
He has the how not to die and he just
has his list of twelve things you should be eating
every day, which is like nuts, seeds, greens, cruciferous. Just
dump all that in the salad and it's great. So
just go for like anything that, like most people don't
want in their salad. That's what you put in there,
(10:43):
like the the atamamae beans, the sunflower seeds, the good
you know, kale, the you know, like anything that you
don't want, that's what you have to eat. Okay, that's it,
and you just dump it all in there. Put a
little dressing. Tastes good, It tastes great.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Little chicken obviously, chicken makes anything taste good. I think.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Finally, Echo Glow this looks really cool too, So I'm
not hating on, you know, on Amazon, I mean, but
Echo Glow is a multicolor smart lamp that pairs Alexa
and it's just thirty dollars and I love this.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
I think I would get this too.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Did you see it? Yeah? It looks really it looks
really cool.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
It reminds me of.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Yes, the Hue the you go.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah, yep, it's literally the same thing.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yeah, but for half the price.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Right.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
So that's why I love it.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
And so basically doesn't it increase in brightness as you're
waking up, so it helps you wake you up, helps
wake you up.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
You can put on your bedside to do that. They're
they're doing they're marketing it as a multicolor smart lamp
for kids, but it can you know, there's a lot
of things you can do. But I just love the
idea of the kids. You know, they love building forts
and to have this little glowing in fact, you know,
I'm just going to order this right now, pre order done.
I don't be released on November twentieth. I mean, why would
I not want this?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Now, can I control it with my phone? That's the
only thing.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
That's what I was about to say. I have a
Google Home Yeah I don't have.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
I want to make sure that I can get it
with Bluetooth, because that's the thing about the phone. Yeah,
because if I can't do it with Bluetooth, that's a problem.
Because I can't. I'll I have to look on into
this a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
You know. What I started using, yes literally yesterday, was
there's a sleep app that I used to use and
I haven't touched it in a year. And it basically it's.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Called a good story, Megan, what cool story?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Tell against sleep cycle? Okay, have you ever used it? No?
So basically what it does is it wakes you up
when you're in the lightest like frem or whatever. And
like I woke up at two thirty ish, like I
started to wake up, and it like turned on the
alarm then because it knew.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
I was like, actually, have to put your phone on
your pillow, No, you.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Put it on your used to have to have it
on your bed, but now you can put it like
on your bedside table. And I don't know, but it's
like it knew that I was waking up like naturally,
which I don't ever do. I normally like can't wake up.
It's like hard for me to wake up like always,
I've always been this way.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
You're a dead sleeper.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, Like even if I have to wake up, even
after if I have to wake up at like ten
am on the weekend, it's hard for me. So it
literally is the safe funny.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I know, I'm a jump out of bed kind of person.
I wish I could. I wait to wait.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I will wait as long.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
As I'll look over at my little alarm clock and
see I like tap my watch and I'll be like,
is it time to wake up yet? And I'll just
like lay there and like wait, and I'll wake up
like a little bit earlier than my clock sometimes. All right,
let's get to the first question of the day.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
All right, So this first question comes from Janetta and
she wrote to you through Facebook, which is Facebook dot com,
slash rich stamiro Right rich on Tech, rich on Tech.
She asked, what do you think about mobilio app? Is
it safe to use? I've never heard of this.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
I have not heard of this either. But here's the thing.
I've noticed that a lot of people email me questions
about stuff they see advertised on TV. Because when I'm
at the gym, I see a whole bunch of stuff
and I'm just taking notes. I'm like, I need to
cover that. I need your story on that, and what's
that app? What's this? So I guarantee you this is
something that she either saw shared on Facebook, advertised on Instagram,
or on a TV somewhere. So I looked it up
(14:22):
and Mobilio is an app where you drive with this
app on your phone, and the better you drive, the
more they reward. You, but they don't reward you in cash.
They reward you with their own cryptocurrency called Mobilio. Now,
I don't think there's anything wrong with this app. I
(14:42):
think that it's an interesting idea. But what they're doing
is there, and they are paying you for your data.
Unlike Google Maps, which is doing the same thing. It's
collecting all kinds of data on you, it's not paying
you for that data. So I like the idea that
they are paying you for the data they're collecting. But
do I trust their weird crypt currency. No, And for
that reason I would not get this app. Now, with
(15:04):
that said, let me just see. I'm curious. I'm always curious.
You can't really trust Okay, yeah, it's only has Okay, interesting,
it's from uh, it's from Germany, so it's not necessarily
a bad app. But I just I don't. I don't know.
I just feel like I'm not really convinced that this
is the way to go to give up all your
(15:25):
data about driving. And I'd also be concerned if something
were to happen, if you got into an accident, if
someone could subpoena the data from this app. Yeah, So
I don't. I don't think you should go for that.
But good question.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
It's an interesting I've never heard of something like that.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Well, something that people don't realize is and I told
Uber this when I was in contact with them about
you know, long story short, a lot of these apps
like Uber and Lyft, they're actually looking at what the
drivers are doing on those apps while they're driving. So
there is monitoring software inside those apps that see if
a driver is handling their phone, if they're speeding, yeah,
(16:02):
if they're breaking too hard. And I don't know if
all the drivers know that. They probably do know that, yeah,
And I'm not sure that even Uber is using this
data to you know, score drivers or you know x
drivers from their system or their platform. But I'm just
saying in a lot of these apps that you download,
there are a lot of things that you may not
know are happening in the background. And I think we're
seeing this with iOS thirteen. Actually, have you updated your
(16:25):
phone yet? Okay, so if you've updated your phone, you
have definitely noticed that you're getting all these little alerts
that say this program has been using your location in
the background, this program has been using Bluetooth. And so
for me, I got one from Ralph's. You know, Ralph's
the grocery store. Why would Ralphs need access to my bluetooth?
And I got this message on iOS thirteen. Ralphs has
(16:47):
been using your bluetooth thirteen times in the past, you know,
in the background. And here's why, because a lot of
these companies will use bluetooth as a beacon to track
you and see where you are inside the store. They
can see what things you walk past. Serious, absolutely, and
so now iOS thirteen is cracking down because something you
wouldn't even have thought of.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Thanks Apple.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yeah, they're being very cool, and so is Androids doing
the same thing. They're both getting because we went through
this renaissance of apps and the beauty of all the
things our phone can do, right, and now we're getting
into like, okay, we let you have free rain for
a long time. Yeah, now we're gonna pull back a
little bit because hold on, what's going on here, and
that's kind of what we're seeing with these new operating systems.
(17:27):
So wow, if you see those messages, the maps one
looks a lot scarier than it really is, but you
have to it gives you pause. So for me, I've
an app called Citizen which alerts you when there's crime
in your area. We've talked about this before. Yes, for
that one, I do want my background location on at
all times because no matter where I am, I can
get an alert about crime happening near me to scare
(17:47):
the hell out of me. With the other one, with Ralphs,
when I saw the bluetooth thing, I don't need them
to have access to my bluetooth. I'm not using the
Ralphs Alexa microphone in my phone or whatever, so I
don't need that. So immediately I said, Nope, don't allow.
And in my book, by the way, we'll talk about
in a moment, but I do talk about how you
can turn off access because there's a lot of new
(18:07):
ways to turn off access to stuff on your phone
in iOS thirteen than you had before. So we talk
about that. I'll get to that after the next question.
But let's talk about Ring they have. This is related
to Amazon, but they also launched their most affordable security
camera to date. It's called the Ring Indoorcam. Everyone loves
indoor cameras now, there's so many of them, fifty nine
(18:29):
to ninety nine, which is considerably cheaper than what Nest offers.
But not as cheap as what Wise offers. Wise has
a camera for about twenty dollars. If you just need
a basic indoor security camera, Wise is the way to go.
Former Amazon folks did that. Amazon Cloudcam also not a
bad way to go. But the Ring Indoorcam can be
(18:50):
mounted anywhere in the house. It's got ten ADPHD video.
It also has a privacy feature that lets you disable
motion and audio recording from the app, not on a
physical key, which a lot of these things are doing.
And there's also an indicator light that lights up whenever
the camera is recording. Then they also announced their third
generation Ring stick up Cam, And I love the idea
of the stick up camp because it's really simple. A
(19:11):
lot of times you don't want to When they came
to my house to install the Nest Cam, it took forever.
They had to run wires and this and that. It
was a whole big nightmare. You need power and all
this stuff. The stick up Cam you can put anywhere
by yourself, and you can power it by pluggin if
you got a plug nearby. Great battery if you want
to recharge it, or solar which is kind of cool.
(19:31):
So if you want a camera in your backyard and
you don't have you know, a plug close to wherever
you plug. Put the camera in Solar Boom Ring stick
up cam and they call it stick up because you
just stick it up anywhere. Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
And both new cameras of course work with you know
who Alexa. Yes, so you can say Alexa, show the
backyard or show the living room or answer the living room.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So anyway, sorry, yeah, sorry but yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Oh and the Ring Indoor Ham is available today sixty
bucks Ring dot com, Amazon dot com, Best Buy dot com,
Target dot com, Home Depot dot com.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
You sound like one of those.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Marcials late at night.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
No, no, no, like the people that sell our.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Our oh our auction. All right, let's hear it.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
The next question comes from Galen and she's looking for
a charger phone case for her iPhone. I'm looking for
a lightweight, slim phone case that will charge my phone.
Getting ready to go to Australia. She wants to be
efficient and prepared. If you have a suggestion for a
portable charger, I'm happy to learn this as well.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Oh, she wants a portable charger or a or a phone.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Case that charges her phone. So one or the other.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
All right, well the phone. There's two phone cases that
are and she has iPhone, okay, so the two phone
cases are kind of the gold standard. Number one is
even before Apple did it, a company called Mophi did it.
Oh yeah, and everyone's heard of the Mofi case. So
Mophi has a juice pack and that's what I'd recommend.
So it depends if you want. They have different levels
(21:10):
of them, but your phone basically slides into this case.
Nowadays a lot of them are wireless, so you still
get the use of the lightning port on the bottom.
It used to be your phone would snap into the
case like this and it would take over the lightning
port because the charger the case would charge the lightning port.
Now it just sits on your phone on the back
(21:31):
and it wirelessly charges because all the new phones have
wireless charging, so you still get access to your charging
port if you need to plug in anything, headphones, whatever.
So that's the main thing. Those are about one hundred dollars.
I would recommend the Mofi one. Just go for that.
If you want to stick with Apple and stay in
the Apple family, then I would go with the Apple
iPhone Smart Battery case and did she say which model
(21:53):
of phone she had? No, No, okay, so they should
have it for most phone models. So it just depends.
But you know, that's the phone. Now. The one from
Apple is a little bit more expensive because that's Apple.
You're paying that little premium that's one hundred and thirty dollars.
And the only reason I like the Apple one a
little bit more is because it's grippy. It has that
(22:13):
silicone case, which is grippy, and I find that that's
really cool.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
The only way does it have two stars?
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Oh that's just on the Apple website. Who knows. Okay,
they probably don't like that as grippy. But the main
problem with the grippiness for a guy is that getting
it in and out of your jeans pocket not so easy.
Oh yeah, so I've had.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
The grippy girls put their phones in their genes part
in the back too.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
But it's but it's a little bit easier because you're
sliding it in, like screen first. I feel like, how
do you put your phone in your back pocket? Screen first?
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Or screen first?
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, that's what I feel like, Yeah, do you do that.
I've started to do that because I really am concerned
about having my phone in the area that it's in
when it's in your pocket, you know what I mean, right,
Like that area is a little sensitive, you know, right,
So I feel like that I've been carrying a phone
there for like twenty years now I'm done having kids.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Radiation, Yeah, I never thought.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Yeah, oh, you've never thought about that. I also think
about it with my wrist with the Apple Watch, because
this has cellular and I feel like cellular is just
you know, pouring down on my wrist all day.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
That's really crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
So I've actually started and I think, so one should
do this putting my phone in my sock.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
But then if your foot gets cancer.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Well that's fine. They can just chop it off, right,
I mean, if it comes down to that, that's much.
It's a much better place if I had to pick.
I mean, let's hope we don't get to that. And
I'm not saying that phones do that, but you just
it's been a long time, and yeah, you know, like.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Sometimes when I watch TV on my laptop and it's
on my stomach, I'm like, this might not be good.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Depends how much you're binging. If you're binging a lot,
yeah might ours Yeah, cash out for that I'm not
a doctor, so don't take it. Don't take any medical
I and I love. I love having two kids because
they play together so much. It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
I think that's the perfect America.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
It really is. Oh that's mean you have three in
your family. So mean.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
When I have kids, I've thought about, well, I used
to want four if this is when I was like twelve,
and now I'm like, I think two. I don't know.
Everything's so expensive these days. I'll probably just stick to cats.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
I don't have cats. I have a dog. That's my
child for now. My mom's one of eleven, though, so
that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah, that's a lot of kids. I was one of five.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Oh yeah, and luck how you turned out.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
I'm yeah the thing. I was early in the bunch.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah you're the first.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Oh my, I'm the second. But all my siblings are great,
and it's I actually loved having five because it was
a party. Yeah, and I'm sure you know, I love
you know.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I loved having like I thought it was so normal
to have such a big family. And I love all
the cousins.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
So and solo kids. What do you call it? A
single thing?
Speaker 2 (24:55):
And my dad's an only child.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Only child. Only child's probably great too. You kids probably
love that because.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
They get all that at all the attention.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yeah, but I love my kids. I love I call
it like autopilot when they're just playing with each other
and I'm like.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Oh my gosh, this is That's like when my dogs
play with each other.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
It's the same thing, very similar. And you're like, come on,
come and get it, come and get the food. Let
me tell you about my new book, because I am
very proud of this, Megan. We've talked about this on
the show before, but now it is actually available so exciting.
It is called one and one iPhone Tips and Tricks,
and I say it is the key that's going to
help you unlock the most useful features on your phone.
(25:32):
Now you might be remembering that I wrote a book
last year, and you might be like, Rich, I already
got your last book. I don't need a new book.
Stop trying to get me to get this new book.
This new book is completely up, updated for iOS thirteen.
So while everyone else was out this summer vacationing sunbathing,
you were in Hawaii. Guess what I was doing.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
You were in New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
I was writing my book no matter where I was,
and so I've been pouring over iOS thirteen finding all
the little nuggets new things that you can do in
this operating system, and I wrote the book all about it.
So I tell you about the new way you can update, delete,
and rearrange apps, because that will throw you for a
loop when you try it. There's a new photo editor
and video editor. How to set time limits for apps,
(26:12):
and I can set time limits for websites too. Oh
wow cool. Okay, you can set your phone up to
help out in the emergency situation, block robo calls, activate
the dark mode, swipe to type, create an eye message profile,
which I'm surprised you have an update because that's like
one of the best features. When you text someone now
it shows their stuff, which is really cool.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Is there a reason why I don't see your profile?
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, because you're not on iOS thirteen yet.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
You can ask Siri to play any radio station, all
kinds of stuff. And if you're wondering how much of
this book is different from the first, I was very
cognizant of writing it for someone that purchased the previous book,
So yes, there is some stuff that repeats, but even
if it repeats, I do put a new twist on it,
but a majority of it is new now. Right now,
it's available as an ebook on the Kindle on Amazon.
(26:58):
The paperback is coming soon. We're just literally finalizing the
cover like this weekend, like it should be any day now.
Once that's done, you'll be able to get a paperback.
But the ebook is available. And some people have been
emailing me because they can't seem to figure out if
they don't have a Kindle how do they get the
Kindle version. Well, you don't necessarily have to have a
Kindle device. You can download the Amazon app, it's the
(27:20):
Amazon Kindle App to your iPhone or your iPad or
any tablet and read the book on there. But here's
a little trick of this whole thing. If you're trying
to buy the book from an iPhone, it will say
this item is not available for purchase on this device.
It's because Apple and Amazon are at war over a
commission on books sold. So you have to go to
(27:41):
a desktop computer buy the book that way, and then
you can just download it's your Kindle app anywhere you want.
That's a little trick to know. Or if you're really slick,
you can do what I can. What I would do
is I would just request the desktop version of the
website on Safari on Amazon and just buy it through
the website because you can buy it. Of course, you
can buy something on a website. So the problem is
(28:04):
if you go to Amazon on your phone and type
in you know, one D and one, Well, now I
have it on the desktop. So anyway, that's it one
and one iPhone tips.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Can you read us something from your book?
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Like not?
Speaker 2 (28:18):
You know, you don't want to give a lot of
it away. No.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
If you go on Amazon, you get literally the first
eleven chapters for free as a sample. So if you
want to get an idea of this book, just go
ahead and download the sample.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
And I'm doing it now.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
You get like the first ten chapters. I mean, it's
pretty amazing. But I I talk about all kinds of
fun stuff. So I mean, let's see, like privacy, every
app wants access to your location at all times. The
reason they can use this information to build a more
precise profile of you and have better luck as selling
you stuff. Of course, there are many benefits to sharing
(28:51):
your location with an app. It's how car sharing service
finds your house or weather app shows your local forecast.
Apple understands that location access can be a double edged sword,
which is why they're giving users more precise sharing options
in iOS thirteen. There you go.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Anyway, And I keep telling Rachi Sha do an audiobook.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Oh see, that's what it would sound like. You're just
gonna get me to read a little chapter every time
and post it all together.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
It's because I love listening to audiobooks when I go
on walks.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
So you want to take me everywhere? I get it?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Yeah? No, okay, moving on. Next question comes from Rich's
Instagram account, which is rich on tech. Blue Moon asks
what is the best GPS watch for a person with
autism that does not have a phone.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Ooh, there, this is a market. If you're listening and
you are handy in any way, shape or form, come
up with a smart watch for kids because all the
options out there are terrible. And Apple should make the
Apple Watch for kids, but they don't. Oh yeah, but
the one that I've been testing with my kid is
the cool Pad Dino. I think we did a story
(29:57):
on this. It's a smart watch kind of a random
company that you probably haven't heard of, but it's a
great little watch. It does what it needs to do.
You can track your kid, it's GPS, it's got built
in cellular. You can buy this thing by itself. I
think the watch is like one hundred and fifty bucks.
Then you have to buy the cellular plan. Yeah, the plan,
which you know, they have various plans, but it's great.
(30:19):
It works with iOS and Android. You can send text,
you can call your kid. We've done calls like where
they are at, like knots Berry Farm or something, and
you call them on It sounds great, and you really
do when your kid has this thing on the wrist,
which she doesn't all the time, but you really do
feel peace of mind that your kid can have a
longer lease. They can kind of go because you know
you can get in touch with them, so I kind
of I mean, that's what I'd recommend Dino kids dot com. Okay,
(30:43):
the website to go to. All right, Oh my gosh,
we're almost out of time on the show. I can't
believe it. What did I promise here? I should? Oh
my gosh, Okay, let me get to a couple of things.
We talked about ways to make web browsing more private
on KTLA, and so I just want to go through
some of the tools that we talked about because I
thought that this story did fantastic.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
I love this story.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
First thing we talked about startpage dot com. You probably
haven't heard of it, but it builds itself as the
world's most private search engine. And the cool thing about
this search engine is twofold number one. The results are
from Google, so you can actually use it and get
good results and still protect your privacy. The second thing
is that you can visit any search result anonymously. So
next to each search result says something like anonymous visit,
(31:25):
You click it, and it sets up a temporary proxy
between you and the site you're visiting. So I always
give the example of you know, you think you got
something wrong with you you want to look it up,
but you don't really want that on your permanent Google record,
That's what I call it. And so you look up
this weird you know thing that you think you have, which,
of course is going to lead to you thinking you're dying.
Have you ever done this, Megan? Okay, of course everyone has. Yeah,
(31:47):
So again you don't want reminders of it, you.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Know, beam a headache and Google like headache in the
back of your brain. It's like taniarism, and then you're like,
how many minutes do I have?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
So true exactly, you've done this lately. The next thing
is the Brave web Browser. Brave web Browser is entire
web browser dedicated to privacy, so by default, it blocks trackers,
it blocks ads, it forces secure encrypted connections on any
website that supports it. They say that webpages load faster
because of all this, and you can also see how
(32:18):
Brave is working because they give you a little report
card for each site, but that's kind of like a
heavy handed approach because you're switching your entire web browser. Now,
speaking of switching your entire web browser, there's one called
Firefox Focus, and this is a mobile web browser, but
this is for a super private web browser on your phone.
And the thing about this web browser you probably wouldn't
replace your web browser with it, but it's kind of
(32:38):
fun to have for those searches. Like you said, if
you're looking up some sort of weird, you know, medical
condition you think you have and you don't really want
this on your phone. Every time you type into series
something and it's like you start with S and it's
like you know or are, and it's like weird rash
on side of leg you know what I mean, Like,
maybe you just don't want that, So Firefox Focus blocks
all the stuff you don't need. It's highly secure, and
(32:59):
at the end of your search session you press a
trash can and boom, everything is gone, so there's no
record of it. That's cool. Duck Duck Go Privacy Essentials
This is good if you're hesitant to switch browsers. This
is an extension for Chrome and other browsers that will
put a shield between you and spying trackers. So it
does all kinds of stuff. The only downside is it
(33:22):
changes your search engine to Duck Duck Go, which is
not very good. Yeah. I hate to say. They say
that they source results from four hundred different things, but
Google is not one of them, clearly because it's You'll
be fine, but it's just not Google like Google, let's
be honest, as the gold standard for search engine. And
(33:42):
then a lot of people were asking me what the
difference is between just all these things and using incognito
or private browsing mode. The difference is that incognito and
private browsing won't remember your search history, but it doesn't
necessarily block what you're doing from your ISP whoever's giving
you that Internet connection, which by the way, could be
your employer. So if you're searching for this stuff on
Wi Fi at work, your employer could see everything that
(34:03):
you're searching. So that's the main difference. Okay, you got
a quick question, Megan.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Um, Yeah, this question comes from Alex, she asks, and
she says, quick question. Oh perfect, I have Pixel three.
Thinking of changing thoughts on S ten versus Note versus
Pixel four.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
S ten versus Note versus Pixel four. So S ten
and the Note are pretty much the same. They're both Samsung. Yeah,
she has a Pixel three or he I would be
partial to seeing what the Pixel four is gonna be
all about. I mean, if you're used to that Pixel
three camera, it's gonna be really tough to go to
a Samsung camera. Not that the Samsung camera is bad,
but it's just not as fast and like spot On
(34:50):
the first time Pixel camera, no matter what you tap
it and it's gonna be a perfect picture every single time.
There's literally just no there's no fu whatsoever with Samsung.
It takes great pictures, but sometimes it could be hit
or miss in the low light situations, the selfie situations,
whatever it is. Sometimes it can be good. Sometimes they're
not so good. But with that said, I will say
(35:12):
that Samsung makes some of the most fun cameras I've
ever seen on a smartphone. When I have a Samsung
device in my hand, I just feel like I want
to take pictures in various ways, like I want to
take portrait mode, I want to take live video, I
want to just do all kinds of cool pictures with
that camera. Pixel is great, but it's kind of a
I always say this, it's a one trick pony. It
takes a picture, it's great, it looks cool, but that's it.
(35:33):
There's no wide angle, there's no you know, there's no telephoto.
You know, there's nothing. It's just boom, you take a picture.
So with that said, Pixel four is going to add
that wide angle lens, So that'll give you a lot
more in terms of creativity. So I'd wait for that
and i'd probably see what they offer and then make
your decision. But when it comes to S ten versus note,
I would go S ten plus because it's a smaller
(35:55):
form factor. Unless you need that stylus, it's a much
easier to handle phone. It just is cool, all right?
What else? What else? What else? Oh my gosh, I
feel like we have so many things to talk about.
Let's talk about Google play Pass. So both Google and
Apple have introduced a new way to purchase games, and
(36:16):
these are the Netflix subscription model, and that means you
pay one price a month, which is five dollars a month,
and you get unlimited access to games. You talked about
Apple Arcade last week. Google play Pass is what they
call it. The best part about these games there are
no ads or in app purchases, and we have been
so trained over the years to buy these games or
download them for free. Next thing you know, you're hit
(36:37):
up for fifty bucks for gold coins, two dollars for this,
three dollars for that. These games don't have that. So
I love that. I'm trying to get my kids to
play these games on the iPad. My kids says are
not as good because the main thing is he wants
these tycoon games, which are just sort of addictive games
that are terrible. But he wants those, and of course
(36:58):
those aren't offered in this model because guess but the
whole point of a tycoon game is to sell you
ondoing things faster, which means you need to buy gold
coins to do it faster. So it doesn't even work
with this model of no in app purchases. There is
no game. The game is psychological warfare on your brain
to get you to want to buy stuff, and if
you're taking that out of the equation, there's no reason
(37:18):
for those games.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
So it's a world that I don't Yeah, I don't
know much about.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
So I will tell you that the play pass and
has Tokoboca games built in, which is really cool if
you have kids, which I know you don't, but Tokboca
games are fantastic for kids. And for five bucks a
month to get unlimited Tokoboca games, that's really cool. I
don't know if it's all of them, says Tokoboca Classics
to the Mytown series. That's really cool. That's worth That
(37:42):
is worth the price of admission right there. And by
the way, Playpass is only a dollar ninety nine for
your first twelve months for a limited time, So if
you're on an Android device, I would jump on this
even if you don't necessarily care today. Locking that price
for twelve months, you get twelve months of gaming for
twenty four dollars. That's awesome them. Then it jumps up
to four ninety nine a month and they can do
that at any time. And if you don't get in
(38:04):
that one nine nine a month, you're gonna be kind
of sad. I'm gonna subscribe to it just because.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
I was looking through the games so a lot of
stuff on there.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
Do you play a lot of games?
Speaker 1 (38:12):
I don't at all? Zero for your kids, Yeah, so
I'm but they're always playing games, so I'm I actually
I shouldn't say zero. I've I've probably played an hour
total last year of games. Oh okay, and I do
play a little like just to test amount sometimes. Yeah,
all right, uh wow, end of the show. Yeah, let's
do best of the week. I found a quote last
(38:34):
night in a book I'm reading that I really liked. Okay,
and do you want to go first or you want me.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
To go first? You go first? This is like legit.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Okay, So this was a great quote that I just
thought was really good. I posted this by my desk
at work. So and this was the quote. What do
we mean by talent? In the most general sense, talent
is a sum of a person's abilities, his or her
intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence, judgment, at itude, character,
(39:00):
and drive. This is the most important part. It also
includes his or her ability to learn and grow. I
just thought I could read this over and over. It's
just so interesting. When you think of someone being talented,
you think, oh, they're really good at something, But if
you think about it, talent is really a sum of
all these different little things about a person, and it
(39:21):
does include intelligence, judgment, attitude, character, drive. Someone could be
really talented and be really annoying to work with, right,
probably that's probably me. No, then I have to be talented,
I guess to fit in that.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Wait.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
This is from the book named Grit, which I'm reading
right now. Oh yeah, And the whole thesis of the book,
as far as I can discern from the first like
two chapters, is that being you know, people described as
a hard worker, but having that drive and that kind
of like just doing doing doing is sometimes more valuable
than just intrinsic talent. So that's why they're defining what
(39:53):
is talent. So I thought that was a great quote.
I love it and it reminds me actually of you, Megan,
because you shot something yesterday at an event we went to,
and it was kind of like a no brainer that
you did a really good job on this thing that
you shot, and I thought that was really cool. Sometimes
we shoot things for social media on an iPhone and
it's a talent to be able to actually just do that.
(40:16):
I mean, obviously we have skilled camera people that do.
Luis our camera guy we love, and he is a
fantastic camera person, but sometimes you don't burden him with
these little social media things we do, so they could
not look as good as our typical, like professional stuff.
But anyway, he did a really nice job, and it
just makes me realize that talent is. It's tough to
like just say one thing when it comes to talent.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, so I agree. I agree.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
So that's mine. What's your best of the week?
Speaker 2 (40:40):
Oh my gosh, mine is not as meaningful.
Speaker 1 (40:43):
That's okay, it doesn't have to be.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
So my brother has a YouTube page and it's called
magic Mikey, and he basically does like reviews and stuff
on like restaurants, and so he yesterday went to some
bakery and brought home a ton of donuts and like
horrible things I shouldn't be eating, but it was really
(41:07):
nice and like I like had a donut and it
was just like prop so far the best.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
That was the best part of your week. I love that.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
That's sad. I just I don't know, it was nice.
My mom and I.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
Like like chowed down. Yeah, do you have more than
one or no?
Speaker 2 (41:21):
I had like half of an apple fritter, but those
are huge.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Those are good though. After fritters. Yeah, your brother he's
doing a good job. Yes, I see his videos pop
up on my feed because I'm a subscriber.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Are you a subscriber to him on YouTube?
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Yeah? Of course cool. Yeah, so his little videos and
on my YouTube like auto plays a little bit, so
I can see like a little preview sometimes and I'll
sit and watch some of them. Yeah, it's it's you know,
it's one of these things that he's eating like ten
thousand calories, twenty thousand calories, like in a sitting. He's
trying he.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Yeah, so he's trying to do less of that and
more of just like.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Like features and yea yeah, features of food.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
But that was what, like, you know, got him a
lot of followers in the beginning, was the whole cheat
day stuff.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Well, I love donuts, as well. I would if I could,
I would eat no joke. I could eat a dozen donuts,
no problem, like the glaze ones, not like a full
fritter kind of thing. But I could just sit there
and eat that like that is. I can't because it's
not good.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
For you to be here.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
I would. I would be dead, Yeah, I would.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Donuts and bagels are pretty pretty amazing.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
Bagels have a good place in my heart. Yeah all right, Well,
thanks so much for listening to the show. We do
appreciate it. If you want to get in touch and
submit a question, you just go to my website. It's
rich on tech dot tv. Just hit that contact form.
I also have a newsletter that I send out usually weekly.
Just go to rich on tech dot tv. Hit newsletter,
put your email address in. It's totally free. Subscribe to that.
(42:46):
You'll get that every week or whenever I decide to
do it. Most of the time it's weekly, but it
gives you kind of a rundown of all the stuff
I mentioned. Producer Megan, how can people find you online?
Speaker 2 (42:55):
I'm on Twitter at producer Megan, and I'm on Instagram too,
Megan mcmonagall.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
We don't mention that one because you change it to
producer Megan. Yeah, I am rich on tech on all
platforms for the most part that I care about. Thanks
so much for listening. The book again is one hundred
and one iPhone Tips and Tricks, available as an ebook
on Amazon. Look for the new cover in what.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
Color it's in blue? Well, it's black and blue.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Look for the new black and blue cover. That is
the cover you want to look for. Don't get the
old one. Make sure it says iOS thirteen. Thanks so
much for listening. You have a fantastic day. We will
talk to you real soon.
Host
Rich DeMuro
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